Archivum - ‘The Crypt Level’

“Designed by generations of mad wizards and insane geniuses, Tegel Manor, a great manor-fortress on a windswept and desolate seacoast, is rumored to be left over from ancient days when a charm was placed over it, protecting its stone walls and timbers from the ravages of time and human occupation. The hereditary owners, whose family name is Rump, have been amiss in their traditional duty of providing protection for the market village to the west. Some say that this failing and their bizarre eccentricities have lead to their eventual corruption. Many have found the manor and area to be a dangerous place to visit!”

“Tegel Manor is a challenging adventure module suited for four to six player characters ranging from 4th to 7th level. It is recommended that the party have at least one cleric and two or three fighter types. Good PCs will have an easier time than neutral or evil ones; however, the latter are by no means unsuited to adventure in or about the haunted mansion.(tovább…)

“In his life, the wizard Ardaxas was feared by everyone, including his few apprentices. At the end of his living days, he retreated below his mansion and built himself a tomb befitting an overlord, with all sorts of magical traps to protect his remains. With all other work finished, Ardaxas achieved lichdom and went beyond the limits of human existence. All he left to his apprentices was a set of instructions to reach him if they sought consultation with their old master. These instructions were later copied and passed on to others, but the location of the vault was eventually forgotten, and the keys to its secrets became useless. In the City of Vultures, a section of the slums is still called „the Wizard’s Maze”, but the connection to Ardaxas is rarely if ever made.”

Description and contents: A trilogy of sequential adventures based in the City State of Kauran (Barbarian Atlantis 4502, named the City of Vultures in my campaign): an encounter with squabbling merchants leading into a murder investigation scenario, followed by a chase through the Undercity with a very deadly tomb-robbing scenario on the side, and finally ending with an assault on an abandoned bathhouse held by a gang of thieves. To this date, only the Undercity section has been released (omitting the aboveground merchant’s house, which would make for a short but decent break-in scenario on its own): in addition to areas mostly for colour, it features a wizard’s tomb jam-packed with traps so deadly that only the careful and correct interpretation of clues left behind by the builder will see a party through safely. The bathhouse, although it was an exciting and tension-filled exercise in tactical combat, was designed with 3.0 thieves in mind, and would therefore need some thought to work in classical systems.(tovább…)

“In the wastelands beyond civilisation, raw might triumphs over all: he who can best others by weapon, treachery or magic holds wealth and power. But not even the wealthy and powerful are immortal, and the wasteland is more powerful than any of them. This module contains the description of a desert outpost where crafty adventurers can find shelter and get involved in dark designs; the descriptions of caravans and NPCs who may become strong allies or implacable enemies… and two adventures for those who would test themselves against the power of the wasteland.”

“The Quean Wastes is the second large supplement I have created from the materials of my Wilderlands campaigns. Unlike Zothay, which was a medium-sized city state treated in a compact and thorough manner, Queans Waste is much more modular. Beyond some simple background information, it is essentially a colourful mosaic of locations for use by the Judge. There are multiple mini-dungeons, a village and no less than four small strongholds described herein, with a number of ruins, relics and lairs to round out the picture. Together, they form a sort of perspective into how I imagine the setting, and how I use it in actual play. In several ways, this use is divergent from the officially released Wilderlands materials, which should be evident on a brief perusal. A number of differences have been noted in the next section. Such changes aren’t just accepted, they are highly recommended – as it has been written elsewhere, „please alter, illuminate, expand, modify, extrapolate, interpolate, shrink, and further manipulate all contained to suit the tenor of your campaign.”(tovább…)

Description and contents: The Railway Station Haul refers to the contents of my backpack 22nd September 2003, which was stolen from my train in Déli Railway Station, Budapest. In addition to rulebooks and supplements, it held my Wilderlands folder, a thick collection of game writings and character sheets. Since none of these materials existed in duplicate, their loss represented such a major blow to a campaign in its prime – just beyond The Garden of al-Astorion and only a few sessions from entering Dark Tower – that it folded pretty much instantly. My interest for 3.0 D&D never recovered; we switched to the proto-version of Kard és Mágia, and shifted our attentions to the “secessionist party” – the gang of misfits and evildoers who no longer wanted to, or could associated with the generally good-aligned (although violent) primary group. In a respect, the change of pace was not all bad: the escapades of the new group, although their adventures only lasted a few, if very dynamic and event-filled sessions, showed me the true power of chaotic picaresque adventures, and influenced the freestyle gameplay and general irreverence of Fomalhaut.(tovább…)